Does it make sense for San Diego to start a government-controlled energy program? We believe City Hall should stick to the basics for now — caring for our homeless population, repairing our roads and maintaining our parks and libraries.

​Some people want to move San Diego into the energy business because of the perceived environmental benefits. Our coalition, Clear the Air, is urging them to hold off on making a billion-dollar decision until we know what the costs, risks and benefits are of a government-controlled energy program, also known as community choice aggregation or CCA.

“The Clear the Air Coalition applauds the City of San Diego’s decision to hold off on making a decision about Community Choice Aggregation until the city has all the facts. Establishing a potential multi-billion-dollar government-controlled energy-buying program carries significant risk for taxpayers and, currently, there are far too many unknowns for city leaders to make an informed decision about such a program. We believe it’s prudent to wait for state regulators to determine how much a CCA would cost taxpayers, so that everyone better understands exactly what the costs and benefits would be for San Diegans as well as ratepayers in neighboring communities.”

​MLGW, as residents called it, was and is the largest three-service municipal utility in the United States, now with over 400,000 customers.

For a reporter, it was a dream assignment because the utility was always convulsed in politics. I covered rate increases, power outages, service changes, the questionable purchase of a natural gas field and, finally, the chief executive’s resignation under pressure. The utility seemed to be operating efficiently for Memphis residents, but it sure was rife with politics.

Then I moved to London for a year-long master’s degree program. As a uninformed and optimistic American, I tried to get telephone service in my apartment. At the time, government-run British Telecom had a one-year backlog. At least I had electricity and heat, though the latter was supplied via a coin-operated gas meter.